2015 Kauai

2015--Feb. 6-12 Kauai trip # 13! Then Maui---Feb. 12-26, trip #3

Finally---Feb. rolled around again and it was time to take our annual trip to Hawaii.  This time we're going to 2 islands: first 6 nights on Kauai; then 14 nights on Maui.  When I went to book our award tickets on AA, Maui wasn't available for STL-OGG, but Kauai was --- so I was more then  happy to travel to Kauai first!  This is our 13th trip to Kauai.  Most of them have been for at least 2 weeks.  I figure that gives us over 6 months here now!  Doesn't that make us residents?!

Note on my cameras:  above ground-Canon 60D; underwater-Olympus TG-830

Click on the dates to see lots of pictures and blog of our trip----

Feb. 6, 2015 --- Travel day (STL-LIH)

Feb. 7: north and Anini---

Feb. 8, Sunday: walk along KBV beach; drive through the East side; snorkel Poipu; waimea canyon overlook; dinner at Kauai Brewing Company; sunset by Koloa Landing---
 

Feb. 9, Monday:  Lydgate

Feb. 10, Tues.: high surf, no snorkeling :(

Feb. 11, Wed.: Lydgate

Feb. 12, Thursday: heading to Maui

 This was the shortest amount of time we ever spent on Kauai.  Hardly got to do anything!  No canyon this year.  No north shore snorkeling (except the one time at Anini).  Didn't even get to Poipu.  If I didn't blog, I'd be wondering what we did for 6 nights!!!  At least we get to spend another 2 weeks on the islands.  On to Maui!!!!  To follow us there, click on :  2015 Maui


2015 Maui

2015 Maui

 Usually we spend our whole vacation on one island, but this time I took advantage of good award travel itinerary to Kauai and from Maui.   We did have to pay $90@ plus $15 for one checked bag on Hawaiian for our flight between LIH and OGG, but I felt it well worth it to get to see Kauai for a few days, too.  But the 6 nights flew by and before we knew it, it was time to head to Maui. 

Note about cameras: above ground-60D; underwater-Olympus tg-830

Feb.12, 2015--on to Maui from Kauai:

Feb. 13, 2015: to Kahului and the Maui Tropical Plantation:

Feb.14, 2015--Valentine's day and Whale Day:

Feb. 15, Sunday: Whale Tales, West shore sights.

Feb.16, 2015---Kapalua and TripAdvisor Meet and Greet:

Feb. 17, 2015--Ulua and Kapalua;

Feb.18, 2015---Maluaka Beach:

Feb. 19, 2015---Road to Hana and beyond:

Feb.20---Maui Ocean Center:

Feb. 21, 2015---Wailea Coastal Walkway:

Feb.22, 2015---Olowalu:

Feb. 23, 2015---The Dumps and Kameole 3---
 
Feb. 24, 2015---Back to the Dumps and a visit from Elvis:

Feb. 25, 2015--Maluaka, Ioa Valley:

Feb.26,2015--Depression setting in!  Time to go home:

I'm finally getting Ken to stay in Hawaii longer and longer.  Sure makes for a welcome break from midwest winters!!!!

To see my blog from Kauai, click here---   2015 Kauai

Feb.26,2015--Depression setting in!  Time to go home:

Our flight isn't until 11pm tonight, so I booked our resort room for tonight, too.  So here we are---5pm hanging out at the resort!  But we did get out for awhile.  Breakfast at the Cinnamon Bun place.  They, too, have great breakfasts sandwiches and rolls very reasonably. 

 Then we took one last ride south.  The site we check for surf and water clarity said poor visibility today.  After yesterday, I believed them.  So no snorkeling today, either.

Feb. 25, 2015--Maluaka, Ioa Valley:

The snorkel website said the South side had moderate visibility again today.  So I suggested we head back to Maluaka. 
On our way there, I admired the scenery of Wailea.  Sure wish our bike routes back home were this scenic (our Katy trail is pretty, but it's not paved).

a peek-a-boo view of the ocean along the way

Feb. 24, 2015---Back to the Dumps and a visit from Elvis:

Today we decided to get some breakfast before heading out to snorkel.  Decided to try the little café we saw near the Post Office---Home Maid Cafe.  The food was pretty basic: eggs, bacon, spam (which I got, we actually like Spam), hash brown, toast, pancakes.  I was hoping for some mac nut pancakes, but they didn't show that on the menu, just pancakes.  Service was slow, but it was cheap and good.  It was also nice sitting outside watching the world go by.

 Even saw this guy while waiting for breakfast.  Get so use to seeing them on Kauai---sort of miss them on Maui.

Feb. 23, 2015---The Dumps and Kameole 3---
 
Yea!!!  Checked the snorkel site for Maui and it said "fair" visibility for the South side.  I'll take that!  The surf was down, too, and the sun was shining most of the time.  It was a fantastic day!  So we headed south---to the Dumps (just past Ahihi).  We had never snorkeled there.  Didn't know about it 2 years ago.  I had read there was a small sandy area for entering at the Dumps, so Ken was willing to try it.  The parking lot is for both Ahihi and The Dumps patrons and it was almost full.  The walk to The Dumps is over a bunch of warn down lava rock.  We even ran into these goats along our way.

 Finally got to the "beach" and walked to the far side where there was a little bit of sand.  Most people were walking in and out without too much problem, but my tender feet made it slow going for me, but boy was it worth it!!!!

Feb.22, 2015---Olowalu:

Again the website said underwater visibility would be poor everywhere but East, but the surf was down and we were anxious to get back in the ocean.   We planned to head to a South beach, but ended up heading West.

 A resident suggested we try Olowalu (or MM 14), so we did.  Visibility was a little poor near shore, but it cleared up quite a bit as we went out.   The coral structure out there is amazingly huge!!  And entry is easy.  The water was even surprisingly "warm"---probably about 77 degrees with spots that were even warmer.

Feb. 21, 2015---Wailea Coastal Walkway:
This morning I walked across the street from our resort to Kam 1 to check it out.  Curses----more rough waves and another surf advisory.  Only place possibly any good for visibility is East---long way to that beautiful park in Hana!   So I decided to not even try to see our colorful underwater friends today.  Instead, why not check out the colorful above water sights.  After all, in just a few short days it'll be back to drab brown everything.

  So I took a picture of a brilliant yellow hibiscus on my way back to our condo.

Feb.20---Maui Ocean Center:

More surf came in last night and the Maui surf and beach website again mentioned poor visibility for everywhere, but East.   We did drive to the West side hoping Kapalua would be good, but people we talked to said visibility was poor and we would have to park by the tennis courts.  

 so we thought maybe we could watch some more surfers at Honolua.  We found a couple surprises there---a fire, and snorkel boats at Honolua!  There was no surf, again, and we couldn't even check out the spouting horn because the fire had the road closed off.  I tried to talk Ken into letting me snorkel Honolua for a little while.  He refuses to get in the water there because of the rocky entrance.  Now it looks like he's refusing to let me, too.  Very depressing thinking I may never get to snorkel Honolua again.  I hope the same isn't true for Ahihi!---my 2 favorite places to snorkel on Maui. 

 so we thought maybe we could watch some more surfers at Honolua.  We found a couple surprises there---a fire, and snorkel boats at Honolua!  There was no surf, again, and we couldn't even check out the spouting horn because the fire had the road closed off.  I tried to talk Ken into letting me snorkel Honolua for a little while.  He refuses to get in the water there because of the rocky entrance.  Now it looks like he's refusing to let me, too.  Very depressing thinking I may never get to snorkel Honolua again.  I hope the same isn't true for Ahihi!---my 2 favorite places to snorkel on Maui. 

Feb. 19, 2015---Road to Hana and beyond:

With the weather changing again, we decided to do The Road to Hana today.  Thought the high surf was going to come in earlier, but it didn't make it until the afternoon.  Anyway, we had to be out of our condo so the Menehunes could come in and clean our room.  So we took off pretty early for a change---about 8:45.  Figured we'd check the Costco gas station to gas up before heading out to Hana.  Today we were able to drive right up to the gas pump!  Gas was $2.82 there and about $3.12 elsewhere.  We gassed up on the way back, too, and with those prices it only took us $20 for our whole trip. 
I took this picture of the West mountains from near Costco --- the mountains almost look snow capped.

 First stop along the Hana Highway was the little farmstand to get some banana bread.  I thought this was the place everyone raves about, but I think we came across the real one later on.  Stopped there, too, but it was so slow and people were cutting in everywhere, so we just left.  Anyway---I was also able to get a couple apple bananas here, a loaf of banana bread (which turned out to not even be as good as mine), and some candied coconut.  We had never had candied coconut before and it was a big hit!  Love that stuff!  (Tried to find some in a store to bring home to the "kids", but couldn't find any.)

Feb.18, 2015---Maluaka Beach:

We're settling into Hawaii time.  Didn't get out of the condo until about 10 again.  Went in search of breakfast---for the first time since we got on Maui.  We had gone to Kihei Café 2 years ago with good friends, so thought we'd try them again.  It certainly is an interesting and very busy place.  It's all outside seating, but first you go in and order your food.  Then find a table outside, help yourself to water if that's what you're drinking, then in a short wait, they bring your food---which is very good.

 After eating, we headed South to a beach.  This time we decided to check out Maluaka  by the Maui Prince hotel.  It's not the easiest beach to find, no sign for the beach and the sign that is on the side street says, "Dead End", or something like that.  But we eventually found it.  It is as beautiful as I remembered.

Feb. 17, 2015--Ulua and Kapalua;

Another beautiful day with light winds.  Still no trade winds, but the southerly winds are staying calm now, although it is bringing in more vog.  The outer islands are barely visible.  Temperature got up to the low 80's again according to our "stupid" $60,000 car.  So we were off to check out the southern coast for snorkeling.  We went straight to Ulua.  There was a pretty good surf coming in, but not too hard for us.  So we donned our snorkel gear and headed in. (a day or 2 later, an elderly gentleman was found dead floating face down in the water here.  I don't remember a trip to Hawaii where we don't hear of someone drowning while we're here.)  

  It was noticeably murkier then Kapalua was yesterday.  But we gave it a good shot.  Here is a school of blue trevallies or Jacks. 

Feb.16, 2015---Kapalua and TripAdvisor Meet and Greet:

Praise the Lord!!!  The ocean is cooperating today!  I was ready at 9:30 anxiously looking forward to snorkeling, finally!  We've been on the islands 10 days now and had only been snorkeling 4 times (all on Kauai and 2 of those times were in the man made protected Lydgate park Morgan's Pond).  That's a record for me!  Definitely time to kick it into gear!  So if I uploaded too many snorkeling pictures, it's just because I was so excited.  Anyway---hubby wasn't as excited as me, so we didn't actually leave our condo in Kihei until about 11:00.  We had plans to go to a TripAdvisor Meet and Greet at Duke's in Kahana (I think) at around 3, so we headed up that way to snorkel---Kapalua Beach.  We weren't the only ones excited to get to the beach!  There was quite a crowd, but we headed straight into the water.

  Immediately we saw lots of fish.  orange spine surgeonfish

 

Feb. 15, Sunday: Whale Tales, West shore sights.

Today we woke up to clear sunny skies and very little wind.  A perfect day for snorkeling----except that it poured yesterday and the tremendous surf pounded so hard that the water was still filled with sand and debris.  So we decided to give it another day before going snorkeling.  It's almost like the first 2 times I came to Maui and I was with non-snorkelers (my Dad the first time and my sister the 2nd time).   Maybe I'm just not meant to snorkel Maui!?  Too bad, I'm going to keep trying. 
Anyway---we decided to head up to Lahaina for the Whale Tales presentations at the theater in Lahaina.  It was a nice ride to the West side.  I was surprised to see how much greener it is this trip then 2 years ago when we were here about the same time.  The horses actually have green stuff to eat now---2 years ago I was wondering what they were eating.

  As we got to the cliff overlook just past the marina, we saw a whale continuously slapping the water with it's tail.  It did this for about 20 minutes. 

  Then there was a tiny tail slap.  Shortly after that they both left.  Note the baby whale and the momma here.

Feb.14, 2015--Valentine's day and Whale Day:

We really lucked out with the Whale Day parade!  It gathered and started right across the side street from our resort.  So I walked down to the street and sat and watched the parade.
 First young bag piper I've seen.

Feb. 13, 2015: to Kahului and the Maui Tropical Plantation:

  Weird things have been happening to me with Blogger this trip!  Don't know if it's our old laptop, the internet here (at both Kauai and Maui???), or some unknown user error :(, or is it because it's Friday the  13th!?!!!  My Maui blog disappeared.  At least it was only 1 day long, so it was easy to replace.

Anyway---we started the day by going to the Expedia presentation at our resort hoping to win one of the activities.   Last time I won a free luau and the time before that I won a free sunset cruise.  No such luck today.  Then we went to the Worldmark owner update; remember the 15 minute one we went to for Wyndham on Kauai?---they pretty much matched that here.  Took our gift card and left. Thanks Worldmark and Wyndham for the $325 in gift cards to spend in Hawaii

The day was another one not conducive to snorkeling.  They keep getting hit with South swells and before the water can totally clear up, another one hits.  Seems to be affecting the West shores, too.  East seems ok, but the only snorkel beach I know of on the East side is by Hana and that's quite a ways away.  Suppose to be bad again tomorrow.  I hardly know what to do when I can't go snorkeling!!!  But we did have to find a Walgreens one of these days for one of hubby's meds to be refilled, so we decided to do that and take in lunch at Stillwell's.   Just a view here of some of the clouds.  Surprisingly, it was like this all day, but we didn't see any rain.

 OK, there were some areas of blue sky.  Here I was taking a picture of the sugar cane fields.  Wonder how long they'll be around.

  I hinted we should go tour the Sugar Mill, but I got no response from Ken on that.

  On to Stillwell's in Wailuku (next to Kahului).  Interesting area.  Lunch was very good!  They make a great Caesar salad.  Of course the real reason to go there was for dessert.  Got the special---coconut cream pie.  It was good, but not as good as the lilikoi cheesecake we had before.  Guess we'll have to go back!

 

Feb.12, 2015--on to Maui from Kauai:

Usually we spend our whole vacation on one island, but this time I took advantage of good award travel itinerary to Kauai and from Maui.   We did have to pay $90@ plus $15 for one checked bag on Hawaiian for our flight between LIH and OGG, but I felt it well worth it to get to see Kauai for a few days, too.  But the 6 nights flew by and before we knew it, it was time to head to Maui.   To see my blog from Kauai, click here---   2015 Kauai


Ken is a nervous traveler, so he made sure we were at the airport plenty early---about 2 1/2 hours early for our 11:10am flight!  The flight was on time and was a nice short flight!
I love that they give you tropical fruit nectar on their flights.

 There was a lot of wind and clouds, but now and then I got pictures of land.  I believe this is Oahu.

I think this is Molokai---or is it Lanai?

  This is West Maui.

 

Feb. 12, Thursday: heading to Maui

It was another early day.  Our flight wasn't until 11:10 am, but Ken believes in getting to airports extremely early.  so we were there by 8:30.
Bye to the tree tunnel into Kauai Beach Resort.

 something you don't see often here---no wind.

 Just to remind me how much gas was this year.  It was about $.55 cheaper at Costco a couple days before.

 heading to the airport

 Always sad to see this sign.

 Even from the airplane you can see quirky Kauai.  They even paint the walls outside the airport.

 We have only left Kauai during daylight hours 1other time.  It was really neat seeing Kauai by air---especially our home for the last 6 nights (and during our other trips to Kauai)---good 'ole Kauai Beach Villas.

Feb. 11, Wed.: Lydgate

Today started off pretty early again.  Not that I wanted it to, but my phone rang at 7, so I looked outside and decided to go out and watch the sunrise again.

 When I came back to our lanai, we had a couple visitors.

 Breakfast was in order today, so we headed to----Olympic Cafe!  Loved this painted garage along our route to Olympic Cafe.  In fact, there are several interesting painted buildings in Kauai.  Only painted buildings we see back home are the painted up boards on the stores in Ferguson to keep them from being broken into. 

Breakfast was great, as expected.  Service was stellar again.
We decided to check and see if the monk seal was still at Baby Beach.  There was one there, but this one wasn't scarred.  The monk seal patrol was there.  Had an interesting talk with her about the one we saw a few days earlier.  She showed me a sign about that one which I took a picture of and added to that part of the blog.  She didn't have much to say about this one. 

 Back on the main highway, I marveled at these woodcavings.

 We thought since the wind was down, maybe we could snorkel Anini.  so we headed north.  Unfortunately, the wind was still strong on the north shore and Anini was still a bit cloudy with lots of wind caps on the surface.  Could have snorkeled, but decided to check Anahola.  Anahola was very windy, too, so we continued down the Eastside to Lydgate.  As we entered Kapaa, we passed the bypass, so turned into the fairgrounds to turn around.  Love this sign there!  I remember as a kid being told if you dig deep enough you'd end up in China----I guess it's really true!

 Also loved this shark sign.  Reminds me of the shark my daughter has hanging in their kitchen---yes, she really has a replica shark hanging in her kitchen!!!

 Lydgate was great again.  Hardly any wind, lots of sun, calm water.  Also had a lot of people there throughout the day.